BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Manufacturers spend N71.22bn on alternative power source; CBN raises lending rate to 13%; Other stories

Hello, and welcome to Business Roundup this week. Here, we bring you highlights of events that happened during the week -from the capital market to the mainstream business activities, while not forgetting the tech/economy build up.

Here are the Headlines:

• Nigerian farmers now owing CBN over N1trn, as many refuse to repay
• Nigeria grants approval to Elon Musk’s Starlink network
• Manufacturers spend N71.22bn on alternative power source
• CBN raises lending rate to 13% for first time in 2 years

Summary:

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that its loans to farmers have now crossed the N1 trillion mark amid rising loan defaults.

Recently a CBN official in Oyo State had raised the alarm on how many farmers now see the loans disbursed under the Anchor Borrowers Programme as their cut of the national cake.

Data from CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee communique reveals that the ABP loan rose to N1.01tn as of the end of April.

The Nigerian government has approved the Starlink Network in the country.

The South African-born billionaire confirmed the development in a statement posted on his Twitter handle – @elonmusk on Friday evening.

He said Nigeria’s approval came alongside that of Mozambique. The Philippines also approved the network on Friday.

The Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) has revealed that its members in the country spent a total of N71.22 billion on buying diesel for alternative power in 2021.

It noted that it’s members saved N10.69 billion on this cost compared to N81.91 billion expenditure in 2020.

President of MAN, Engr. Mansur Ahmed who disclosed this on Thursday in Lagos, however, noted that the cost of providing alternative power was still very high.

For the first time in two years, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised the lending rate for banks to 13 per cent.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have decided to raise the monetary policy rate also known as the lending or interest rate for the first time to 13% from 11.5% in a bid to tame inflation.

This follows a long and tough deliberation among the six members of the committee that makes up the CBN’s highest policy-making body of the Bank.

Read also :BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Customs introduces electronic valuation policy. Weak Naira drags Nigeria’s inflation rate to 16.82%; Other stories

On NSE ROUNDUP: Investors earn N503.5bn in 8 hours as Nigeria’s capital market extends bullish run

Investors at the Nigerian capital market pocketed N503.5bn on Friday following the rise in equity capitalization by 1.75 percent at the close of the day’s business.

After eight hours of trading, the value of investment at the capital market rose from N28.65 billion recorded on Thursday to N29.15 trillion today.

The All-Share Index rose by 933.98 basis points to close at 54,085.3, up from 53,151.32 posted the previous day.

Investors traded 208.08 million shares valued at N5.52 billion in 4,898 deals on Friday.

On the tech scene, Grey, Cloud Fret, FlexID, Broadcom, ShEquity, Starlink, Bloom were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

31-year-old IT solution provider, Broadcom, during the week, initiated move to acquire VMware for $61bn

Also, a Nigerian Fintech startup, Grey, during the week, expanded into East Africa through a new partnership with single API payments platform, Cellulant.

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